Such a thermotherapy device is known, for example, from EP 1 060 727 A1. Such thermotherapy devices are used, for example, as incubators for the nursing care for premature infants. The therapy unit may also be provided with a hood, which is closed in case of closed nursing care and is open in case of open nursing care. The heating device may be a radiant heater in case of an open therapy unit and a convection heater in case of a therapy unit closed with a hood.
Various maintenance procedures need to be performed during the service life of a thermotherapy device. Parts subject to wear are to be replaced regularly or defective components are to be replaced in case of failure. The device cannot be used by the user during the maintenance procedures. This means for the user, for example, the hospital, that the thermotherapy device is not available during the maintenance time even in urgent cases. Depending on the scope of the maintenance procedures and the duration of the maintenance procedure, this may lead to long down times. Not only does this result in costs for the hospital, but it leads to irregularities that cannot be planned for both the staff and the premature infant requiring the thermotherapy device. To ensure the nursing care of premature infants, a larger fleet of thermotherapy devices must be maintained in order to have a sufficient number of ready-to-use devices available even in case of maintenance procedures being performed on individual thermotherapy devices. To keep these inconveniences as low as possible, the devices should become suitable for use again as quickly as possible in case of maintenance or repair. All electric components, parts, cables, etc., must be able to be reached and replaced quickly and reliably for this purpose. Since the service technician performs these maintenance or repair procedures on site on the client's premises, he has to be able to perform the activities in a simple manner, without great effort and in a reliable manner. Very good accessibility to all components affected, which are located in the interior of the housing, is a prerequisite for the ability to perform the maintenance or repair procedures with replacement of one or more components reliably and quickly.
For example, flaps are provided on the housing of the therapy unit of the thermotherapy device at the bottom in conventional thermotherapy devices. These flaps can be opened, for example, by folding the flaps away downwardly, as is shown in FIG. 8, after which the service technician has access from the bottom to the components located in the interior of the housing of the thermotherapy device or to components on the inside of the folded-up lower flap. Prior-art thermotherapy devices, which are similar, in principle, and are known from the state of the art, are shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, where a bottom 22 of the housing is detachable in FIG. 6. The base wall 24 is designed in the device shown in FIG. 7 as a pivotable flap, and after this flap is pivoted away, components located in the interior of the housing of the thermotherapy device is accessible from the bottom. An area of the base wall can likewise be folded up in the device shown in FIG. 8, after which there is access to both the interior of the housing and components located on the inner side of the opened flap.
Accessibility for the service technician for maintenance and repair purposes is greatly limited in all these embodiments, because the service technician must bend under the device and then must search for access from below into the interior of the housing or to components located on the inner side of an opened flap. This is ergonomically highly unfavorable and difficult, on the one hand, and time-consuming, on the other hand, which leads to the problems of long down times of thermotherapy devices, which were addressed above. It is also a drawback that errors can occur more readily during maintenance or repair procedures because access to the components in question is difficult for the service technician, for example, when a component that is to be replaced is not inserted correctly because of the difficult accessibility in the interior of the housing, so that it will not function as desired during use.